


Traditions

by IetjeSiobhan



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Birthday, Birthday Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, University Student Kuroo Tetsurou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:54:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27607247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IetjeSiobhan/pseuds/IetjeSiobhan
Summary: Of birthdays, and presents, and the making of new traditions.
Relationships: Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou
Comments: 36
Kudos: 125





	Traditions

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little fic I speed-wrote in time for Kuroo's birthday today. Happy Birthday, Kuroo!!
> 
> This fic was not beta-read, mainly because I just finished it in time for Kuroo's birthday, so please forgive any small mistakes you may find. English is not my native language.
> 
> Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. I do not financially profit from this work. The characters do not belong to me, I merely borrowed them.

Tetsurou usually enjoys his birthdays, has enjoyed them since he was a child, wide-eyed with scraped up knees. Back then, he used to be anxious for his birthdays for weeks beforehand, counting down the days. Maybe because his birthday falls so close to Christmas, and for the majority of the year, there isn’t something big to look forward to, in terms of celebration.

So he used to start counting down as early as September, with unmatched excitement.

He’s turning nineteen this year, and he thinks it’s probably the first time he hasn’t been waiting for his birthday with bated breath.

His birthday falls on a weekday this time, and he’s not celebrating it with his family and Kenma, the way he usually would. Because Tetsurou is in university now, and his family and Kenma are a one-hour train ride away.

Sure, he’ll see them on the weekend – they’ll all make the trip, his father, his grandparents, Kenma, his sister. Even his mother said she might make time for a visit on Sunday.

It’s not the same, though, it really, really isn’t.

He misses them, terribly, all of them – especially Kenma.

He hasn’t seen Kenma in about three weeks, and Tetsurou hates that more than he can put into words. But he’s busy with university and volleyball, and Kenma is busy with school and volleyball. They both have practice on Saturdays that they can’t just skip – especially not Kenma, now that he’s the captain of the Nekoma volleyball team – and Tetsurou has to spend most Sundays in the library, and a little over an hour of train ride is way too much for weekday visits. So they haven’t seen each other in about three weeks, and Tetsurou is suffering.

He misses Kenma so, so much. Probably way more than one is supposed to miss their best friend, but then again, Kenma is not just Tetsurou’s best friend, he’s his better half, his life, partner, his everything – he’s the person who made social contacts seem less scary when he was eight, the person willing to indulge Tetsurou’s love for volleyball, the person who’d rather get a fever than disappoint Tetsurou.

He’s the person Tetsurou has been in love with since he was eight, probably, not that he’s ever told Kenma this.

It’s not all that relevant: Kenma has never dated anyone, never expressed interest in dating anyone, and Tetsurou is happy enough just being at his side, being his best friend. As long as he never has to watch Kenma date someone else, it’s not a problem that he himself isn’t dating Kenma.

Sure, he’d love to, but at the end of the day, what he really needs, more than anything, is for Kenma to just be _there_. That’s all.

But today is his birthday, and Tetsurou is now officially nineteen years of age, and he might have received a ‘happy birthday’ text from Kenma, but Kenma isn’t _here_ , and Tetsurou suddenly and fiercely regrets not choosing a university closer to home. Sure, he isn’t that far away, all things considered, but it still feels too far, too much, and he’s not okay, like this.

He just wants Kenma close.

Which is why he’s currently laying on his bed and moping, instead of being out and about with his university friends. His volleyball team had tried to convince him to go celebrate with them, and his study group friends had tried to convince him to go out with them – even Oikawa, who is probably the most annoying person Tetsurou knows, and, as of recently, also one of his friends, however _that_ happened, had insisted Tetsurou spend some time with him, celebrate his birthday.

He truly hadn’t felt like it.

Staying inside, laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling and moping seemed like the much more sensible option.

It still feels like the more sensible option now; he really doesn’t want to go out and look in the faces of people who aren’t Kenma or his family. Maybe it would make him feel better, to actually do something, but then again, maybe it’d just make him more miserable.

It’s a risk he isn’t willing to take.

And he feels like he’d be cheating on Kenma, in a way, which is obviously absurd, but this – this is _Kenma’s_. It’s his birthday tradition to be serenaded by his family in his morning, and then to spend an entire day with _Kenma_ , his best friend taking the initiative for once and dragging Tetsurou around, to then come back home in the evening and eat cake with his family and Kenma, spend the evening with them, let his grandmother fuss over him and his older sister make dumb jokes and his father smile fondly.

He’d gotten a phone call from his father this morning, him and his grandparents singing a horrendously out of tone rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ into the phone, at least starting the day off right, but to have it continue right, he now needs Kenma here, and he isn’t, and Tetsurou does not feel okay about that at all.

He looks at the clock on his nightstand and sighs; it’s already six in the evening. He’s spent the majority of his birthday sulking, and if he doesn’t change his behaviour soon, he’ll have spent the entirety of his birthday sulking.

He doesn’t feel like changing anything about his behaviour.

He feels like it’s an appropriate reaction to the circumstances.

He gets ripped out of his reverie by the doorbell ringing.

Sighing, he sits up. He contemplates simply not opening the door for a moment – it’s probably just Oikawa, being his annoying self, and he has no interest in dealing with Oikawa right now. Then again, it would be rude to just ignore the door bell on his birthdays, of all days – if this is truly someone who wants to spend time with him, then Tetsurou is not moody enough to just ignore them completely.

So he gets up and wanders over to the door. Sighing, he opens it, ready to tell Oikawa how unwelcome he is –

Just to stop dead in his tracks. Because standing in front of him is not Oikawa, or any other university friend. It’s Kenma, hair half-heartedly put into a ponytail it’s falling out of, dressed, of all things, in one of _Tetsurou’s_ hoodies.

His heart stops for a moment.

“Kenma,” he breathes, and then he’s engulfing Kenma in a hug, pressing him close.

“Hi, Kuro,” Kenma says against his chest.

Tetsurou lets go of him a little, just enough so he can look at him.

“You’re here,” he says wonderingly.

“Tradition, isn’t it?” Kenma says. “And I wanted to give you your birthday present in person.” There is something nervous in his tone of voice, but Tetsurou is too distracted staring at him, beautiful, beautiful Kenma, _right here_ , to focus on it.

“I don’t need a present. You’re here,” he says, sappily but earnestly.

Kenma smiles a little, but he looks nervous. “I still hope you’ll like this one,” he says quietly.

“What is it?” Tetsurou asks, more in a wish to indulge Kenma than anything else. Kenma is in his arms, that alone is enough, the best present he could ask for. There’s no way Kenma can top himself.

“This,” Kenma says, and his eyes flacker nervously. Tetsurou is confused for a second, but then Kenma rocks up on his tip toes and his lips touch Tetsurou’s, just for a second.

Tetsurou stares, dumbfounded, and before he can in any way react, Kenma’s lips have left his and he’s standing on his feet again.

He’s pretty sure his brain has short-circuited.

“From the way you’ve acted the last time you visited, I thought maybe you want this too, but if you don’t that’s okay, I hope I haven’t upset you–” Tetsurou realizes that Kenma is babbling.

 _Kenma_ is babbling.

It spurs him into action.

“Kenma,” he says, putting all his love and adoration in his voice. “I thought you couldn’t give me a better present than your visit. I was wrong. This is the best present you could have given me.” He looks at Kenma, who’s standing in front of him, cheeks flushed, face framed by hair that’s fallen out of a ponytail it’s not yet long enough for, and thinks this is the best birthday he’s ever had.

He’s enjoyed every one one of his birthdays, ever since he became aware of their significance, but none of them come even close to this one.

He leans down and softly kisses Kenma again. This time, they both close their eyes.

As far as traditions go, he hopes they’re making a new one.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this little thing at least a little bit.
> 
> As always, I'd tremendously enjoy it if you could leave me a comment. :)
> 
> You can find me on twitter @ shiwiwrites


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